Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickramatunga shot

Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, was shot on Thursday while he was driving his vehicle at around 10.30 a.m at the Bakery Junction in Attidiya, a suburb of Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

Ranjith Gunasekara, a police spokesman, said Wickramatunga was targeted by two armed men on a motorcycle.

He added that Wickramatunga was in a critical condition and that officers were investigating the attack.

"He was on his way to work when he was shot... we heard that he had been shot in the chest, head and the abdomen," a colleague of Wickramatunga told the AFP news agency.